Chimpanzees are highly intelligent animals who share 98.6% of their genetic DNA with humans, making them our closest relative. They make use of tools such as rocks to crack nuts in half or sticks inserted into mounds to ‘fish’ for termites, and are the only primates to have developed tool use to such an advanced level..

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Chimpanzees are part of the great ape family along with orangutans and gorillas. The males, at over a metre tall and weighing between 35 and 70 kilograms, are larger and stronger than the females. Chimpanzees have long, strong arms for climbing and strong, nimble hands and feet with thumbs to grasp objects and branches.

HABIT

Chimpanzees are extremely sociable animals, living in complex communities of between 15 and 100 animals. The groups are led by dominant males, who establish a hierarchy based on physical strength, age and intelligence, although friendships and personality are also extremely important. The chimpanzees spend hours grooming each other.

DIET

The agile chimpanzee is able to climb and reach a variety of foods including many ripe fruits, young leaves, seeds, bark and flowers. They also supplement their diet with ants, termites, caterpillars and occasionally small mammals such as antelopes and monkeys, which they hunt together in a group.

LIFE EXPECTANCY

Life expectancy for a chimp in the wild is between 40 and 50 years old.

RANGE OF THE CHIMPANZEE

Chimpanzees are the most widespread of all the great apes and live in Savannah grasslands and forests throughout East, West and Central Africa. Habitat destruction and over-exploitation, however, has reduced their distribution in many countries.

It is estimated that Africa has 191,000 wild chimpanzees. On the surface, this sounds like a large number, but many of these animals live in fragmented 'relic' populations that are separated from other chimpanzees by areas that are heavily cultivated. The chimpanzee is officially classified as an endangered species.

Chimpanzees are protected by international law under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but destruction of habitat and the illegal bushmeat trade continue to pose a serious threat to their future.

The greatest threat facing chimpanzees is the destruction of their habitat by commercial logging. As well as destroying the forests chimpanzees depend upon for their survival, the loggers open up previously inaccessible areas to poachers who kill chimpanzees for the commercial bushmeat trade, or capture infants to sell as exotic pets. Only one in four chimpanzees survive being taken from the wild. Most of the traumatised orphans will die from disease, malnutrition and dehydration.